Today Babel Is Back

Now if only they could translate "empty shed" into "excitement"

It’s another day of interrupted, or at best intermittent, Google service in China today which makes it difficult for us to operate here at RightSite.  In addition to the Google Docs issue that I referred to yesterday, we also are encountering difficulties accessing Google Translate today.

Because RightSite is a bi-lingual site, we make heavy use  of online translation applications, and our Google Translate has been our usuall choice.  While these programs don’t produce text that you would want to submit directly to customers or publish on the website, they can take care of a lot of preliminary translation work and make it easier to produce finished documents. Some online translators also will allow you to translate a web page on the fly and make it much easier to pick up the gist of a page or document.  Makes life much easier for those of us illiterate in Chinese.

In the absence of Google Translator, we have turned to using Babel Fish, an online translator bought out by Yahoo a few years back. And Babel Fish works just fine.  Somehow it seems to know that I am in China, as translating Chinese to English is at the top of the list of translations they offer. And the quality of the resulting text seems comparable to Google Translate.

Now if only Yahoo could give me access to my docs stranded on Google Docs.  See you again soon on Mingtiandi.com.

Related posts:

1. Google Spreadsheets Blocked in China?
2. Mingtiandi is Back Online
3. Problems Accessing Google Docs in China
4. Back in Town and Back to Building Companies
5. Idiot-Proofing, Dropbox and the GFW